Me: Basically, I want what every woman wants: I want to be able to do chin-ups and bench press my husband. (Beat) That is what every woman wants, right?

Personal trainer: (Laughs) Absolutely.

Had my first session with a new personal trainer today. He seems like a good fit personality-wise, being of the quietly encouraging type rather than the drill-sergeant type. (I'm not sure how many shouty personal trainers really exist outside of The Biggest Loser.) He's got a bit of a thing for flexibility and stability work, but he seems open to working with me on pure strength training or whatever else I want to do. (And honestly, a bit of flexibility and stability work is probably just what I need.) We'll see how it goes - he didn't really push me all that hard in our first workout, but he was trying to get a feel for what I was capable of.

Me, mid-workout: I'm tougher than I look.
PT: Yes. You are!

(If I'm being totally honest, part of me was just a tiny bit disappointed at how readily he assented to that statement. Part of me would like to look just a little bit tough.)